On this date in 1988, Seve Ballesteros won his third Open Championship, edging Nick Price by two at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Seve shot 65 to beat the 54-hole leader Price. The championship was forced to finish on a Monday for the first time ever due to heavy rain on Saturday.
On this date in 1983, Tom Watson won his final major, his fifth Open Championship, at the age of 33. The victory came at Birkdale by one shot. Watson could have won the next year at St. Andrews but was edged out by Seve Ballesteros.
It’s been six years already since Australian Adam Scott, he of the picture-perfect swing, won the Masters for his first major victory. He is running out of prime years to win more. On this date he celebrates his 39th birthday. Flawless as a ball striker, Scott has been held back in his career with inconsistent putting. Perhaps the slower greens at the Open Championship this week will help him.
At age 21, Bobby Jones won his first of four U.S. Opens on this date in 1923 when he beat Bobby Cruickshank in a playoff, 76-78, at Inwood Country Club in New York.
On this date in 1973, Tom Weiskopf won his only major, the Open Championship, in a 12-under-par performance at Troon Golf Club, three ahead of Johnny Miller and four up on Jack Nicklaus.
On this date in 1937, Charles Coody was born in Stamford, Texas. The 6-foot-2 Texan won the 1971 Masters, winning while occasionally tugging on his socks, a nervous habit of his.
On this day in 1969, Tony Jacklin ended an 18-year drought by an English golfer when he won the Open Championship by two shots at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Jacklin shot four under par to beat Bob Charles. of New Zealand.
The 35th U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship began on this date in 1960 in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the Ala Wai Golf Course, making it the first USGA championship played outside the continental U.S.
On this day in 1971, Lee Trevino won an exciting Open Championship, shooting 278, one shot better than Taiwan’s Lu Liang-Huan and two better than English favorite Tony Jacklin. Mr. Lu was a unique crowd favorite who doffed his hat constantly in recognition of the applause he received for a spirited run at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England. The victory gave Trevino both the U.S. and Open titles in the summer of 1971, just the sixth person in golf history to win both in the same year.
On this date in 1965, Australian great Peter Thomson won his fifth Open Championship, winning at Birkdale with a score of 285, two ahead of Brian Huggett and Christy O’Connor Sr.
On this date in 1933, Denny Shute won the Open Championship, at St. Andrews’ Old Course, winning a 36-hole playoff with fellow Yank Craig Wood by five shots.
On this date, English golf great Tony Jacklin turns three-quarters of a century, having been born in 1944. The World Golf Hall of Famer won two majors and was an influential figure in the Ryder Cup.
On this date in the 1931 U.S. Open, history was made when the longest playoff in championship history came to an end when Billy Burke won a playoff at Inverness. He and George Von Elm were tied after the then 36-hole playoff on July 5, and then played 36 more on this day. Burke barely won, 148-149. The 72 holes were the most playoff holes ever.
On this date in 1970, Donna Caponi won her second straight U.S. Women’s Open. Her 287 total of one-under-par overall was one better than two players at Muskogee Country Club in Oklahoma.
The Associated Press lede said it all about the event on this date in 1965: NORTHFIELD, N.J. - Carol Mann of Towson, Maryland., shaking off an attack of the jitters, beat out a rallying Kathy Cornelius by two strokes Sunday and won the Women's National Open Golf Championship with a 290 score that stamped her as the sport's new Mickey Wright. The 24-year-old, 6-foot-3 Maryland girl broke into tears after she ran in a four-foot putt for a birdie on the final for an even-par 72. Mrs. Cornelius, 32-year-old Rancho Sane Fe, Calif., mother who led through the first two rounds, had finished a few moments before with a 69 for 292. It was Miss Mann's second tournament victory in as many weeks and made her the leading contender for the throne vacated by the long-hitting Miss Wright.
One of the most stirring results in golf history took place on this date in 1954. Babe Zaharias, battling cancer, won the U.S. Women’s Open at Salem Country Club in Peabody, Massachusetts. Her score of 291 won by 12 shots.
Amateur Catherine Lacoste shocked the golf world by winning the U.S. Women’s Open on this date in 1967. Her score of 294 at Virginia Hot Springs Golf & Tennis Club won by two shots over Susie Maxwell.
On this date in 1961, Mickey Wright, the greatest women’s player in history, won the U.S. Women’s Open at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course in Springfield, New Jersey. Her total of 293 was six shots better than runner-up Betsy Rawls.
Before Bobby Jones one of the American amateur stars was Charles (Chick) Evans Jr. On this date in 1916, he won the U.S. Open by two shots over Jock Hutchison, shooting two under par for four rounds at Minikahda Club in Minnesota. In early September, Evans would win the U.S. Amateur at Merion, making him the first amateur to win the U.S. Open and Amateur in the same year.
On this date in the 1906 U.S. Open, Alex Smith won at the Onwentsia Club in River Forest, Illinois, with a score of 295, seven shots ahead of his brother, Willie. To show the strength of non-Americans in global golf in the early stages of the sport, the first seven finishers were from Scotland and only one American, amateur Chandler Egan, was in the top 10.